Jimmie Fidler Dies, Last Of Big-time Hollywood Gossips

LOS ANGELES — Jimmie Fidler, the last of the controversial gossips that once included Louella Parsons, Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell, died Tuesday in Westlake Village, Calif. He was 89.

A high school dropout who at his peak in 1950 earned more than $250,000 a year, Fidler probably was the most controversial of the Hollywood broadcasters who nightly or weekly filled the nation's living rooms with stories about stars and comments about movies.

At one time 40 million people a week heard him over 486 radio stations while his gossip column appeared in 360 newspapers.

His trademarks included a four-bell rating system for new films, four being best; ''open letters'' to movie stars in which he often blistered both their performances and their behavior and his sign-off: ''Good night to you . . . and you . . . and I do mean you!''

He delivered his critiques in a high-pitched, intense voice and prided himself on being the least popular of the Hollywood broadcasters in Hollywood itself. He often found more to dislike than to like about films and film stars, but he regularly bested his competition because of tips.

''I had secretaries in studios all over town who would supply me with stories for bonuses of $25 to $100,'' he said in 1983.

Newspaper reporter friends also supplied tips and Fidler gleefully recalled how studios would regularly phone in items critical of other studios.

Fidler, who claimed to have written the first Hollywood gossip column in 1920, was on the air until 1983.